Fat Albert

My tying list is growing and shrinking back and force. I was working on a terrestrial pattern which utilizes lots of foam. Fortunately, the art & craft shop Michaels' is in Bozeman. I'd like to say if you need foam in various colors, DO NOT go to fly-shops but to Michaels', period. I bought 3 huge foam as you can see which are 99-cent each!! while the little bag on the top is the one typically sold at fly-shops with $2. I've purchased a life-time supply for each color.

The pattern I was working on was called Fat Albert. I just like the name. Because it's really fat!! and then fun to tie. I heard that this is originally developed for Argentina or Patagonia trout. Fat trout down there must eat fat meals, I guess. Using tri-color of foam along with an indicator and realistic legs, Fat Albert must be a great imitation for hopper, ant, and beetle. Legs are supposed to be barred by a marker but my marker came off during tying process. I should get a better one yet I still like what I came up with.

This is the top view. Making a knot with a single string of round rubber legs is difficult if not impossible as it doesn't stay. That's why rear pairs consist two strings and a touch of cement on knots.

For gloss appearance on the belly, cement can be applied as much as one wants to!!

Here are color variations I could think of. Top one is meant to be a cricket and bottom one is meant to be a relatively large beetle or ant with touch of black foam.

Trout can't count number of legs as their IQ is 6 (Dr. Gary Borger) so they don't care whether my flies have 8 legs while ants, beetles, and hoppers actually have only 6 legs.

Well, this pattern will be counted on my favorite list but then again, I'm short of fly-boxes......